We read for you | The power of flexible thinking

While we readily accept that everything is constantly changing, often at the frantic pace of successive technological innovations, why is it so difficult for human beings to review their positions? When one takes pleasure in one’s opinions and is satisfied with one’s own arguments, one avoids “renewing” one’s thinking and one then misses the opportunity to change and innovate.

“Let’s have the courage to forge flexible thinking, that’s the key to success,” announces psychologist, professor and author Adam Grant, one of the founders of the Next Big Idea Club. Why prefer the discomfort of doubt to the comfort of convictions? In a turbulent world, of all the cognitive skills you need to have, the one that consists of rethinking things and revising your judgments is among the most important, says the management expert.

When was the last time you changed your mind? “The curse of knowledge is that it closes our minds to what we don’t know. Good judgment depends on the ability — and the will — to keep an open mind,” writes the professor. Too often we cling to our instincts and habits or assumptions. Renewing one’s thinking to update one’s points of view is an invitation to define oneself through flexibility rather than consistency. The author invites the reader to adopt the mindset of a scientist in search of truth and evidence, who stays away from confirmation bias (we see what we expect to see) and that of desirability (we see what we want to see).

A “confident humility”

We must never stop cultivating a “trusting humility”, because it will always be easier to find reasons to stick to our positions than to look for where we could be wrong. It would be enough, according to the psychologist, to “have faith in our abilities, while appreciating the fact that we may not have the right solution or even that we may not be dealing with the right problem”. This type of humility is distinguished from obsessive inferiority, debilitating doubt, blind arrogance. Rather, this disposition relies on our ability to learn. When we are aware of the advantages of admitting our ignorance, we are more open to the possibility of exploring different points of view.

Open your mind

To prevent overconfidence, the author suggests several “new” ways of thinking: drawing lessons from one’s experiences, determining one’s cognitive blind spots (concerning one’s knowledge), supporting contradiction, detaching one’s opinions from one’s identity, asking for opinion of his own detractors rather than his complacent collaborators. Then, when the time comes to help others renew their thoughts, it is better to feed the discussion from an infinity of points of view to depolarize the debate and create a culture of learning at work rather than s strive to stay the course on a fixed idea. In short, we must keep our minds open!

The power of flexible thinking

Adam Grant

Editions de l’Homme

345 pages

* This article is published thanks to a partnership with the magazine Management HEC Montrealwhere it first appeared.